The Return of Poko

Session: 8
Date: Wednesday, 4/13/05
Place: HMB Jetty (and in the beachbreak about 400 yards south)
Time: 5:15 to 7:00 or so
Waves: Mostly shoulder to head high close-outs
Stokemeter: 4

You might look at the session summary above and see a stokemeter of 4 and think well that must have been a worthless surf and this must be a worthless posting. 4 out of 10 is an F grade, after all. But the thing is, even a session with a miserable rating of 1 on the stokemeter can still be worthwhile. The reason is that there are so many variables in surfing - the weather, the conditions, the board, the fins, the crowd, the tide (just to name a few) – that in order to make sense of them all you simply have to immerse yourself and learn from experience. In order to become a truly skilled surfer, one has to develop a strong understanding of all these variables, on the stokemeter 4 days as well as those oh so rare days of stokemeter 10 bliss. And that, my friends, is what makes EVERY session so valuable.

As for Wednesday, it was with my brother and a beginning surfer from Google, Dan. I had stayed in SF on Tuesday night, so I didn’t have my board or wetsuit with me, so Nic brought ‘em up and met me at my jobsite. Then all 3 of us drove over to HMB in the yuppie-mobile. Anyway, as mentioned in my Santa Cruz post, I did some major damage to the Rotella over the weekend and haven’t fixed it yet, so I had to break out the potato-chip board – yep, the infamous Poko. The Poko-chip was kinda nervous about meeting the frigid waters of Nor-Cal for the first time, so nervous in fact that she tried to avoid it by playing a nasty trick on me. Here’s how it went down.

When Nic got to my jobsite he said that when he left his place he had looked for the Poko fins at his place but couldn’t find ‘em. I said that’s ok because I got them in my car (which is where I normally keep them). But, of course, when I looked for them this time they were not there. Knowing that she was about to get cold, Poko-chip had made me take my fins into Nic’s a couple days ago and then while I was sleeping had hidden them inside a backpack. So there I was in San Mateo with a fin-less board. But I wasn’t about to let the Poko get out that easy – I decided to stop at a surf-shop on the way and buy a new set.

So we went to the shop and unfortunately fins are a fortune (63 bucks for a set) and I didn’t want to do that. So we all talked to the guy a bit and he said oh, well we do have these used ones, and he pulled out a secret box from below the counter. It was full of a bunch of used FCS fins, so I selected some G-3 side fins but there was no center G-3, so I found the only center fin in the box and it was a little different but I figured why not experiment (I currently know nothing about fins) so I got it. They were 8 bucks each, so that ended up being no too bad. We were then back on our way, and the Poko knew she was about to get cold.

We got to the Jetty and it didn’t look bad. There weren’t many people out, and the waves looked decent, so we went right out. For some reason, it was INCREDIBLY cold. Probably the coldest water I have ever been in. I don’t know what made it so cold but seriously it was almost frozen. So I could instantly barely move my hands and got ice-cream headaches on my duckdives, but after some hard paddling (and a little bit of pee) I warmed up a tad and was still cold, but not frozen. It has been a long time since I rode the Poko so I was a little unsure of how I would do. I was expecting a lot of goofy looking wipeouts when I tried to stand up, but I caught one wave right away and it was easy. I felt well balanced and getting up was smooth. I did notice that I felt really slow though. I’m not sure if it’s the fin setup or if it’s because I’m simply too heavy for the board and I’m burying it underwater. I think it’s more the latter and there’s not too much I can do to change that. But it was still fun to be out on a new board, even though when I sit on it I’m underwater about to my neck. Initially I went over to the spot closer to the rocks and Nic and his Google buddy stayed in the beachbreak stuff. I caught a few waves, but I couldn’t seem to make it past the first closing section and wasn’t getting very good rides. Nic came over too then and he caught some good ones (for him). We both then went over and kept the other guy company and rode some closeouts. I caught one that held up for a decent time and that was a fun ride, although I couldn’t do anything because I couldn’t get any speed. To sum it up – It was fun riding the Poko again but it’s still probably too small, the water was freeeeeezing, it was quite windy, and the waves were mostly closeouts.

On the way back home we ate pizza at Straw Hat, and just like when I ate there with Mike a few weeks ago it provided plenty of entertainment. Suffice it to say that the cashier was a little confused and had some amusing comments. The pizza was good though and we had a feast, with a pitcher of beer to wash it all down. That reminds me, I also drank 2 beers in Nic’s car on the way to HMB, so I was a bit buzzed for the session. When the waves aren’t big, that can make things more fun.

That’s all, sayonara.